Archive By Section - State

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Border officers have seized more methamphetamine in Arizona this fiscal year than they did the entire previous year, continuing an upward trend for the drug that officials say is much easier and cheaper to manufacture in Mexico.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A $115.4 billion budget deal would make California the first in the nation to offer state-subsidized health care to children who are in the country illegally while expanding other social welfare programs, Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders said Tuesday.

BERKELEY (AP) - A 21st-birthday party thrown by a group of visiting Irish college students turned tragic early Tuesday when the fifth-floor balcony they were crammed onto collapsed with a sharp crack, spilling them about 50 feet onto the pavement. Six people were killed and seven seriously injured.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A measure approved by legislative Democrats this week cuts the reporting requirements for the agency that oversees California's $68 billion high-speed rail program, requiring spending reports to the Legislature every two years instead twice per year, prompting critics to charge that oversight is being scaled back.

FRESNO (AP) - A group of public water agencies that serves millions of Californians asked the state on Tuesday to order farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to stop irrigating their crops amid the relentless drought.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California lawmakers passed a record $117.5 billion spending plan with overwhelming support Monday, but the budget that would send more money to public schools and establish a new tax credit for the working poor is unlikely to go into effect.

• OWNER OF MARIJUANA FARM FINED FOR FOULING CREEK: REDDING (AP) - Water regulators in California have fined the owner of a former marijuana farm and a licensed excavation contractor $297,400 for fouling a creek while preparing a piece of land in Shasta County for pot-growing.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - As a roomful of lawmakers and staff grinded through the last line items of the Legislature's spending plan late one night, it became clear there would be no easy deal even though California's budget is being crafted solely by Democrats and state coffers are awash in cash.